Gaslit Nation

The 2024 election will come down to white women in the suburbs of Virginia and Georgia. How do we get through to them? This week’s bonus show, available to subscribers at the Truth-teller ($5/month) and higher, answers questions from listeners subscribed at the Democracy Defender ($10/month) and higher, with a special look at what to say to white women in Virginia and Georgia thinking of voting for Trump.

Listen to a free excerpt of our bonus show Adopt-a-White-Woman wherever you get your podcasts! Subscribe at Patreon.com/Gaslit to join our community of listeners, get bonus shows and all episodes ad free, invites to exclusive events, submit questions to our regular Q&As, and more!

The New York Times is doing it again.

The truth is Putin has never been weaker. (We discuss that in this week’s episode Sad Putin and Slurring Trump). Learn the history of the New York Times serving the Kremlin’s interests at the live-taping of Gaslit Nation x Black Diplomats for the launch of In the Shadow of Stalin, the graphic novel adaptation of Mr. Jones, the journalistic thriller about Stalin’s genocide famine in Ukraine, which Russia’s invasion builds on today in their brutal war. Get in free by subscribing at the Truth-teller level or higher on Patreon.com/Gaslit! RSVP here: https://loom.ly/4EPf1mU

Listen to this week’s episode Sad Putin and Slurring Trump wherever you get your podcasts! Subscribe at Patreon.com/Gaslit to join our community of listeners, get bonus shows and all episodes ad free, invites to exclusive events, submit questions to our regular Q&As, and more!

The Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week will be euphoric as Kamala Harris accepts the party nomination. Like every convention, it’s also going to be a lobbyist paradise, with giant corporations throwing lavish parties. United Airlines' Josh Earnest, former White House Press Secretary under President Obama, will host an after-party at the company's Chicago headquarters, featuring Elon Musk apologist Walter Isaacson, author of Musk’s mythologizing biography.

United Airlines has reason to be at the DNC, and it’s not to celebrate terrifying passengers with several malfunctions, including wheels falling off and mid-flight engine trouble. They are actively working against Democratic legislation in the Senate to break-up the credit card fee monopoly of Visa and Mastercard, legislation that would save consumers $15 billion. Major airlines like United want to stop it, because they make more profit from credit card mileage programs than from flying planes. United’s C.E.O., Scott Kirby, recently gave himself a 90% raise, earning $18.6 million in 2023, just a few years after taxpayers bailed out his airline at the height of the pandemic. Will United Airlines succeed in influencing Democrats at their biggest party in years, at the expense of us all?

Reecie Colbert, political commentator and host of Urban View on Sirius XM, joins Gaslit Nation, along with Terrell Starr of the essential Black Diplomats Podcast and Substack, to discuss how to hold a Harris/Walz administration accountable to the hopeful and inclusive vision of America they’re running on, as well as how to protect the first Black woman president from white rage and misogyny. We also look at Ukraine’s historic surprise invasion of Russia and what it means in the global fight against fascism at home and abroad.

This week’s bonus show, available to subscribers at the Truth-teller ($5/month) and higher, answers questions from listeners subscribed at the Democracy Defender ($10/month) and higher, with a special look at how to talk to white women in the suburbs of Virginia and Georgia thinking of voting for Trump. To get every episode ad free, bonus shows, invites to special events, and more, subscribe at Patreon.com/Gaslit! Thank you to everyone who supports our independent journalism!

The 2024 election is American joy vs. American carnage. How do we ensure victory on November 5th and beyond? Listen to this week’s episode The Future is Female wherever you get your podcasts! Subscribe at Patreon.com/Gaslit to join our community of listeners, get bonus shows and all episodes ad free, invites to exclusive events, submit questions to our regular Q&As, and more!

You think modern women have it tough now? Not too long ago, in 2007, Christopher Hitchens wrote an essay for Vanity Fair titled, “Why Women Aren’t Funny.” In it, he argued, “Whereas women, bless their tender hearts, would prefer that life be fair, and even sweet, rather than the sordid mess it actually is. Jokes about calamitous visits to the doctor or the shrink or the bathroom, or the venting of sexual frustration on furry domestic animals, are a male province.” In his view, women are precious baby-making machines, and that power forces them into being a solemn presence–a reserved audience for men, who have evolved with the purpose of making society laugh.

Today, a woman vice president of the United States is the second most powerful person in the world. And the most that her enemies can come up with is that she laughs too much and has never given birth. The slim pickings of criticism of Kamala Harris by MAGA are as thin as Hitchens' arguments, and they all boil down to misogyny that will be relegated to history books.

That era was defined by the reign of “the r**e joke king” Tucker Max, bestselling author of the book I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, in case you’ve blocked him out of your memory. Coming of age during that time, a group of childhood girlfriends decided to create their own satire of this misogynistic hellscape, Betches Media. Joining us this week on Gaslit Nation to make sense of the war on women, past and present, and what to do about it is Sami Sage, co-founder of Betches Media and co-author, along with Emily Amick of the popular civic-action Instagram account Emily in Your Phone, Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and Our Lives.

This conversation was recorded during one of the darkest weeks in American democracy: the Republican National Convention. As they say, it’s aways darkest before the dawn. Much has changed since then, but this conversation with Sami Sage remains as current as ever as we celebrate the opening words of the Gaslit Nation Action Guide: Democracy is a lifestyle. That’s the only way we ensure the first Black woman president, and secure our democracy in the critical years to come.

Listen to this week’s episode The Future is Female wherever you get your podcasts! Subscribe at Patreon.com/Gaslit to join our community of listeners, get bonus shows and all episodes ad free, invites to exclusive events, submit questions to our regular Q&As, and more!

Got questions? We’ve got answers! Dictators and wannabe dictators are not original. They’re pretty much the same throughout history. We’ve been here before, and we’re going to overcome it. Get answers to your most pressing questions about the times we live in at the Gaslit Nation Q&A. Submit your questions by subscribing at the Democracy Defender ($10/month) or higher at Patreon.com/Gaslit! Annual discounts available!

Listen to a free excerpt of this week’s bonus show exclusive to our Patreon community wherever you get your podcasts. Join the conversation with a community of listeners at Patreon.com/Gaslit and get bonus shows, all episodes ad free, submit questions to our regular Q&As, exclusive invites to live events, and more! Subscribe today at Patreon.com/Gaslit!

Listen to this week’s episode How to Stop Trump from Stealing the Election wherever you get your podcasts! RSVP to our August 15th phonebank with Indivisible, co-hosted by Indivisible St Louis, Indivisible We Will Persist, and the RISK! Storytelling Podcast, here: https://loom.ly/Eek3I5Q

Join the conversation with a community of listeners at Patreon.com/Gaslit and get bonus shows, all episodes ad free, submit questions to our regular Q&As, exclusive invites to live events, and more! Subscribe today at Patreon.com/Gaslit!

We can win! We can rebuild America to be freer and fairer to all. But we’ll need more than the White House to do that.

Join Indivisible x Gaslit Nation Phonebank Party! — August 15 at 7pm ET. Every third Thursday through election day and on election eve in November we’re calling voters in Republican-hostage states in the Midwest with Indivisible to ensure a Democratic Senate. Sign up here to join us: https://loom.ly/Eek3I5Q

Join Sister District x Gaslit Nation Phonebank Parties! – Every Wednesday in October! Every Wednesday through October, we’re phone-banking with Sister District, calling voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia. Sign up here to join us: https://loom.ly/XTo9sF0

Listen to this week’s episode How to Stop Trump from Stealing the Election wherever you get your podcasts! Subscribe at Patreon.com/Gaslit to join our community of listeners, get bonus shows and all episodes ad free, invites to exclusive events, submit questions to our regular Q&As, and more!

Monday September 16th 7pm at the Ukrainian Institute of America join us for a wine reception and live taping of Gaslit Nation with Terrell Starr for the launch of the graphic novel adaptation of Andrea’s film Mr. Jones! Get in free by subscribing at the Truth-teller level or higher on Patreon!

Listen to this week’s episode How to Stop Trump from Stealing the Election wherever you get your podcasts! Subscribe at Patreon.com/Gaslit to join our community of listeners, get bonus shows and all episodes ad free, invites to exclusive events, submit questions to our regular Q&As, and more!

Days before the 2016 election, Rudy Giuliani went on Fox News promising a "big surprise," emphasizing his point with a Crypt Keeper cackle. "We've got a couple of things up our sleeves that should turn this around." The vast majority of the polls had Hillary Clinton comfortably winning.

Paul Manafort, the Kremlin's longtime operative in Ukraine and Trump’s longtime friend and neighbor, had laid low in recent weeks following a bombshell report out of Ukraine that he took millions of dollars in off-the-books payments from Ukrainian kleptocrat and wannabe strongman Viktor Yanukovych. However, Manafort broke his silence days before the election and wrote on Twitter: "Battleground states moving to Trump en masse. Media not liking the pattern. By Sunday, Trump will be over 270 in polls." But the polls said no such thing.

Why were Giuliani and Manafort suddenly so confident Trump would pull off an upset? The 400-page Mueller Report and the bipartisan Senate Intelligence reports both exposed how the Trump campaign and the Kremlin came to power in 2016: through pumping out disinformation to suppress the vote, cyberattacks stealing sensitive data, and hacking the voting systems of all 50 states. That very illegal strategy has been in play ever since and is mainstream for the MAGA fascist movement openly trying to overthrow our democracy and install a Christian nationalist dictatorship, with Trump as their long-awaited strongman, a perfect God’s imperfect vessel.

This special episode of Gaslit Nation looks at the ways Trump is trying to steal the election and what must be done to stop him. This is an episode you’re going to want to share with your family and friends. Terrell Starr of the Black Diplomats Podcast and Substack also joins the show to discuss the US election in the context of global affairs. This week’s bonus show, available to subscribers at the Truth-teller ($5/month) level and higher, answers questions from our listeners at the Democracy Defender ($10/month) level and higher, including on how to hold Rupert Murdoch accountable and reasons why Ukraine must join NATO. Thank you to everyone who supports the show – we could not make Gaslit Nation without you!

Join the conversation with a community of listeners at Patreon.com/Gaslit and get bonus shows, all episodes ad free, submit questions to our regular Q&As, get exclusive invites to live events, and more! Subscribe today at Patreon.com/Gaslit!

Book Launch Reception for In the Shadow of Stalin: The Story of Mr. Jones – Sept 16

Monday September 16th 7pm at the Ukrainian Institute of America join us for a wine reception and live taping of Gaslit Nation with Terrell Starr of the Black Diplomats Podcast and Substack for the launch of the graphic novel adaptation of Andrea’s film Mr. Jones! Get in free by subscribing at the Truth-teller level or higher on Patreon!